Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a telephone answering and recording automatic switching device and more particularly a telephone answering device capable of being used in an automatic answering and recording mode and a 2-way conversations recording mode between calling and called parties.
There are many automatic answering telephone devices capable of recording 2-way conversations. When recording a conversation on the known devices, a recording pushbutton is depressed to record signals on the recording tape and to put the device in an ordinary recording mode for recording the conversation. There is a situation in which a telephone call comes in while a party being called is actually available, and after the automatic answer operation has been actuated, the person wants to pick up the telephone handset to talk to the calling party. In such a case, it would be convenient for the recording tape to keep on operating for automatically recording the conversation between the parties. It would also be convenient if, when the parties hang up after the conversation is finished, the recording operation of the tape were to stop, and the automatic answering telephone device were automatically to be brought back to a standby condition. The automatic answering telephone device would otherwise not usually be capable of handling the next call unless it were returned automatically to an automatic operation mode after the recorded message has been played back.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,074,081 issued Feb. 14, 1978, to Humm discloses a telephone answering device which operates so that when a called party lifts the handset of the telephone set, the telephone answering device is disconnected from the line. When the party hangs up the handset, the device is reconnected to the line. After reconnection of the device to the line, the manual switch of the device may be actuated so that 2-way conversation recording is enabled.
According to the Humm patent, if, during a telephone conversation, the called party realizes that the conversation should be recorded, the party must immediately turn on the 2-way conversation recording switch. Unfortunately, a portion of the conversation before the actuation of the switch would not have been recorded. Additionally, the need to actuate the switch may result in a party foregetting to turn the switch on during a conversation which should be recorded.